Coke Starts Looking To `Refrigerator`

Giant Coca-Cola Co. seems to be grasping at all straws to get consumers excited about its Coke brands.

The latest development at Coke and its advertising agency resources on Madison Avenue finds Chicago Bears Jim McMahon and William ``The

Refrigerator`` Perry being recruited to do a television commercial.

McMahon and Perry in December will appear in a TV spot plugging both the new Coke and Coca-Cola Classic.

Coke believes that Perry and McMahon ``will do an exceptional job`` in delivering a pitch for the two Coke brands. Lots of luck.

When the spot has been completed and aired who`s to say that consumers will be less confused than they are now about Coca-Cola USA`s intentions for the two soft drinks.

The Atlanta-based company got itself into a bind last spring when it brought out a new formulation of Coke to replace the existing one. Extensive research (and no ``gut`` feelings) led Coke to believe that new Coke would be a winner and boost its market share. Consumers revolted, forcing the company to trot out the older brand as Coca-Cola Classic. The Classic now is outselling the new formula Coke.

A good bet is that the company will eventually dump new Coke, perhaps by this time next year, especially if the brand hasn`t shown any sales improvement. The company, of course, denies this.

Coke`s problems are more than positioning the two brands. The company`s recent Coke advertising is not in the same league with that of rival Pepsi-Cola Co., which has been gaining to strongly challenge Coca-Cola.

In fact, Coca-Cola last week did some switching among its agencies, moving Classic from McCann-Erickson in New York to SSC&B there, which has done some fine work on Diet Coke. McCann, which still has new Coke, got Cherry Coke and Tab from SSC&B in return. Both agencies are part of the family of Interpublic Group of Companies.

SSC&B has the responsibilty for turning out the McMahon-Perry spot, which may be of 30-second or 60-second lengths. The agency brainstormed the idea of putting the two together as part of an interim campaign pushing the two Cokes before advertising responsibility for them is split, effective Jan. 1.

Let`s hope the McMahon-Perry spot is a dandy and creates thirst for the two Cokes. Otherwise, the agency could latch on to a clip of last Sunday`s Dallas game showing Perry trying to carry ball-carrier Walter Payton over the goal line for a touchdown. Such a spot with the reward of Cokes in the end zone might have more impact than any SSC&B creation.

Payton, Joe Namath, Marcus Allen and Mean Joe Greene are other football heroes who have done commercials for Coke and Diet Coke. Now that Perry and McMahon are in the act, Coke no doubt will be hoping that the presently unbeaten Bears go 19-0 (including the Super Bowl clincher) to capitalize on all the visibility from its new commercial starring Perry and McMahon.

-- Albert ``Al`` Traina resigned as executive vice president of CBS Inc.` s CBS Magazines Division in New York to set up a consulting firm there under his name, effective Dec. 2. Traina also will become a publisher`s

representative for ``no more than three titles`` of magazines within that division. Traina was president of Ziff-Davis` consumer publications, which CBS acquired early this year.

-- Edison Electric Institute, a Washington D.C.-based national association of about 180 electric utilities, moved its $6 million-a-year advertising account from D`Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in New York to W.B. Doner Co. in Baltimore. Doner was chosen over six other agencies, including several New York shops.

-- Jeffrey Martin Inc., a Union, N.J.-based firm, assigned creative advertising for its Lavoris mouthwash to Saatchi & Saatchi Compton in New York. The agency also has Martin`s Topol toothpaste account. Lavoris may be a $5 million account. The client does its media buying in house.

Make `em smaller but make sure the stock is ample and varied enough to meet consumer needs. That`s the new store-format concept at Florsheim Shoe Co.`s Florsheim Shoe Shops Division, which opens one of its new smaller units Dec. 2 in the Sears Tower. The new Florsheim store in the Franklin Street concourse has 755 square feet of space and an inventory of 2,500 pairs of shoes. Florsheim nationally has more than 480 stores, including 32 in the Chicago market.

Is there a PM Blues cigarette brand in the works at Philip Morris Inc.

? The company, which leads all tobacco companies with a 36 percent market share of the domestic cigarette business, has filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent Office for a PM Blues smoke. When and if this brand will make it to test market is not known.